Arsene says the English don’t know what tired is… Arsene, do you?

Welcome to Tuesday, the night where our Champions League group stage will be sealed. We’re one point behind Schalke. They play Montpellier, we play Olympiacos. If they win, the theory goes they are more likely to take the easier draw in the next round. If we take second, which looks a close certainty, then there’s every chance we could face Barcelona again. It doesn’t always work out like that, but I’d say most would rather lessen the chance. Some people say you have to face the best if you want to win the Champions League. Again, I totally disagree. You can face the best like we did a few seasons ago on the way to the final, or you can find your way to the final by avoiding most of the good teams. We made it through to the semi finals playing Roma, Villarreal finally faltering to United. If we’d beaten United, that would have left us with Chelsea in the final. Hardly the worst run in.

Instead, we could do what we did last year and end up against Barcelona who would no doubt spank us into next year.

This is the joke of Arsene Wenger. He says there are only two trophies on his agenda. Yet we don’t have a squad big enough to handle either of them.

“People in England don’t understand very well tiredness,”

“They think you can only be tired at the end of the season. But it’s a lack of freshness that I was talking about. It was not deep fatigue. Sometimes, you have a repetition of games with the Champions League. It can happen. But we do not want to complain. The little bit that we were not fresh [against Swansea] was only a part of the explanation.”

Mr Wenger. Firstly, there are two reasons players are tired. 1) You don’t give them a break from the first team if they are important 2) You still train them too hard

If anyone doesn’t understand tiredness, it’s the man who drives his best players into the ground year after year.

You can’t talk to the fans about jaded then continue to play the same first eleven week in week out. Thing is, because of the poor decisions he makes every summer in the transfer market, those be the only options he has available to him. Wenger spoke about his big squad at the start of the year, yet a fairly large chunk of them aren’t suitable.

Out of the defence, JD, Squillaci and Santos aren’t good enough and the boss will do anything not to play them. In midfield. Coquelin is clearly not rated, Rosicky and Diaby are massively injury prone and Andrey, despite landing 6 assists so far this year is totally shunned in favour of an exhausted Cazorla. Why? If he’s here, if he’s playing ok, why not give him a run? Up top Chamakh is hardly used. If Giroud is being rested, why not give him a go? He scored two pretty well taken goals against a Premiership side. He’s in a similar mould to Giroud. Wouldn’t he suit the style we’re trying to play better than Gervinho?

So that’s 8 players who either don’t play or aren’t good enough. That gives us a 17 man squad to take on the Champions League and the League. That’s with a £140m wage bill. It’s not good enough. We shouldn’t be jaded and we shouldn’t have to rest players if the pressing need is for us to play them to secure top spot. It’s worth quite a bit to us to get more games in the Champions League. 2 extra home games are worth more TV revenue and £6million in gate receipts.

The comment that has most people riled this morning is the one about not swapping our position with City’s. In a literal sense, silo’d to the Champions League, of course you wouldn’t swap positions. However, squad wise and 12 points clear of us in the Premiership, well, you’d have to say that statement is pretty inflammatory. The question was inflammatory. Sometimes stupid questions deserve honest answers delivered in a venomous way.

‘Of course I’d rather be 12 points further ahead in the league you idiot’

That would have sufficed. Instead, he’s convinced we can catch a side that are more than capable of sustaining a 90 point season. No chance Arsene. Not with a jaded 17 man squad in December.

There was a lot of noise around the comments Steve Bould made after the Swansea game. I couldn’t dedicate a blog to something so dull. Big deal, Steve Bould shouted at the players and told them they let themselves down. I should hope so. Some questioned every angle of those comments… such a waste of time. Who cares how the players feel? They’re a team. They win as one, they drown as one. They’re all drowning at the moment and they need to pull themselves out of the mess they’re in. I did find this comment interesting…

‘You want them to dance? This group of players is highly motivated and if they don’t win, they are upset.”I’m more worried if I see players in the shower who laugh after they have lost.’

We’ve already seen players swapping shirts at half time this season and I’ve watched Song hugging Spurs players and having cosy full time chats after bad results. That’s what we have to stamp out of the squad. We need to get more spiky characters in the dressing room because I have serious doubts over some of the players and their reaction to a bad result.

Arsene’s final insult was this one which is a repeated comment from last week.

‘The people who shout the loudest are sometimes treated like the majority”

“It’s not always reflecting people’s deep mind”

Someone needs to have a word. Those loud voices aren’t just a few on the Internet these days. They’re people in the ground. They’re staunch defenders from the past. Instead of hiding from the criticism, perhaps he should take some seriously positive action and make some bold moves in the January window. That’s all Arsenal fans want. I still think he’ll turn things around this year.

If Spurs drop points against Everton this weekend, which could definitely be on the cards, that’ll put us two points behind them and they’re in 3rd currently. The run in after that is fairly easy. We’ll have 3 pointers against Reading (A), Wigan (A), West Ham (H) Newcastle (H) and then Southampton. We could quickly find ourselves back in the top four mixer before you know it. So although we’re in a mess right now, don’t be surprised if we’re not listening to an overly smug Arsene by January 1st when he’s hailing the greatest come back of his career.

Don’t forget though… that was off the back off the worst start of his career. It’s no achievement. It’s just a sad indictment of our expectations as fans that a large portion will celebrate that like we’ve just won a European Cup.

Anyway, let’s see what happens this evening. Hopefully we’ll put in a performance, even if it is a weakened side.

There was a nice article on ANR from a gooner whos said its one groundhog day too many, and that he’s taking a break from arsenal. Has found more time to spend with his girlfriend, friends an family and is also learning german

I’m going to take a sabbatical from Arsenal until the end of the January transfer window. If no improvements have been made or signed, this will be extended until Wenger has gone.

Life’s too short to waste giving a fuck about Arsenal, because I can tell you Arsenal does not give a fuck about you!

This is a broken team. Relegation fodder. If the boss has any sense of decency left, he should consider resigning. He has nothing left in the tank for these boys and it shows. They go through the motions, and are always outplayed. It’s kind of funny because I thought we played well against Liverpool and City, but after that we started regressing. Was it the Ramsey and Gervinho love in? Oh well, this is a club where anything is tolerated. Time to move on Monsierur Wenger.

Does any one have the stat on distances covered by both teams? I will think we were the lazier of the two teams.

I do believe the countdown has started and it started when Arteta missed the penalty against Fulham. Since then we have gone from bad to worse. Why did he substitute Rosicky at half time? Was he injured? I didn’t hear anything to that effect. By all means bring on Arshavin but why take off Rosicky instead of taking off Ramsey?

He played the reserves and kids so he could use that as his excuse when we lost that’s why he never took the first team not because they’re jaded,and the bullshit he will feed the media will be it was great experience for the youngsters and we are in a better position than man city.it doesn’t matter who we draw in next round this squad is not good enough to compete with Dortmund bayern psg let alone the might of Madrid and barca,so obsessed with finishing 4th every year just for the pay cheque because realistically we have very little chance of winning the champions league,it’s an absolute disgrace watching some of those players gervinho,Ramsey,chamackh to name a few so highly paid and yet so shit as well arsene wants sacking for this alone.

tbh now it doesnt really matter who we buy in january. Till a month ago,probably it mattered. But now it is crystal clear that wenger is a black hole in which no player can be bright enough to illuminate the hole.

Ivory, we were marginally lazier, but they deserve the win. Most times Football does not lie.

How come Dortmund is playing so well? And they are a team with a lower budget? Who says you have to spend like Chelsea to win matches? In the EPL, we have the likes of West Brom and Everton punching above their weight? Atm, Wenger offers nothing to this team. They have stopped playing for him. I expect him to be burning with frustration the longer it goes, and he may have to leave us due to the whole thing affecting his health.

It was described as a 2nd string team rather than a team of squad players on ITV.
I think that sums it up well.
Our 1st team are a bunch of squad player in the main & our squad players (2nd string) can’t beat Olympiakos, also rans of the group with an Algerian strikeforce!

Positive game???!!!

FFS!……guess its what we’ve come to expect now from the mad stubborn fool.

Cannot believe that vid. Surely Arsenal fans have more class than that. Don’t matter that RVP has been proved well and truly right. I used to always think Spurs fans were genuinely deluded and a little bit thick. Can safely say now that mantle has been passed to us.

Everyone and his dog seems to be of the thought that the current sad state of affairs is down purely to Wenger. That he is the Antichrist incarnate and the end of all that is. I beg to differ. The fact of the matter is simple. Wenger is an employee of Arsenal Football Club, he has a mandate each year which seems (in my opinion anyway) to secure a top 4 finish and make a profit for Stan,

Now from where I stand what has he done wrong thus far? We are not that far behind fourth place and I’m happy to bet my house on it that we will see the inevitable collapse of teams like Everton and Spurs and we will finish 4th. Theo will probably be shipped off for about 5 million pounds this January and we will probably see off a few squad players and one or two first teamers in the summer,

The end result will be that Wenger fulfils his mandate to his boss, Stan.

My point is that had his mandate been to win trophies with the resources available to him then he would have been fired years ago. The bottom line is that Wenger is and will always have to answer to the board and the boss and has it stands he has nothing to worry about.

Do you all seriously think that Stan, Gazidis and Wenger give a fuck about me typing this rant or when Pedro churns out one of his classic posts? Do you think they give a shit about fans booing players off at the whistle? Nope.

We fans are not as important as we like to think. I would love to believe for one second that all the negativity around the club at the moment will force Wenger and the board to sign 2 or 3 top players but I just can’t see it. Wenger and the board will sign the minimum to keep us in the top four – a striker will come. I bet its Hunterlaar or probaly Llorente, That’s it.

Good business is minimum outlay maximum return. We spend 7-8 mill on Hunterlaar and we ride the CL gravy train. Want to win the PL? Massive outlay needed. Looking at 100 mill as it stands. What’s the return and profit?

Stan is running the perfect business model.

We can all carry on whining as much as we like. No one is listening!!!

Minimum required by board is 4th for CL money. And they might drop it.
That doesn’t mean that as a manager he should stick to trying to do fourth and be surprised if he finishes 3d. Point is, he’s not trying to win it.
He just find as many excuses he can. And in regards to most football matters, he can’t even compete with Swansea and the likes.
Stop being blind.

I just see Wenger as a face of the club. I don’t know what is going on behind the scenes but the fact that he is still in a job and Stan has more or less said Wenger has a job for life indicates that they are happy with 4th + profit.

Now if Gazidis came out and said that as club we demand that we win a torphy EVERY season and challenge for the title then I would love to see what Wenger can or can not do.

End of the day the above will not happen as like I have said 4th + profit = job for life for Monsieur Wenger and there’s not a lot angry non-AKBs (is what you crazy kids call yourselves these days?) can do about it.

GPharm: if Wenger had an ounce of integrity, he’d have resigned the moment he’d have not been free to do what he wants.
Only the fans can get Wenger out.
And it’s Wenger that lacks the ambition.
The board doesn’t care as long as the money gets in.
He qualifies, he gets the money, and the new contract.
That’s up to Awenger to try his best with all resources – and clear up the dross and pick his new players.
He’s not doing enough for the fans but enough for the board. And with a manager with a bit more balls and less self indulgment, that could change.
Clearing up the board to get people more interested in pitch results is also on the map, but how do you force that without having one shareholder dying?
How do you propose to get rid of the board realistically speaking?

Changing manager for a more ambitious and with a distance with current player is clearly needed. And that can be pushed onto the board’s desk by fans.
As long as there are people like you saying that the boos are only for the players.
Who was the “you don’t know what you’re doing”
I fight for a just and realistic cause.
If you want to spend your time against the board for no result, please keep on. It’s not medias who will go against the financial logic of the shareholders.
How is Kroenke having any influence from USA when he doesn’t even understand football? Sorry, soccer.
Judge him in May I suppose.
But still no titles. 4th is a trophy mind you, according to some idiots.

Cesc – I agree, we don’t have any 20-230 mill players anymore but you know it happens every year where one player has their “Flamini Moment” and the press big him up. Next thing you know Barca are bidding 15mill and we sell. We managed to sell dross like Song so there’s always hope for players like Ramsey, Gervinho, et al.

GPharm: if Wenger had an ounce of integrity, he’d have resigned the moment he’d have not been free to do what he wants.

Seriously “integrity” in football? Put yourself in his position for one second while you hold your end of year payslip and then repeat the above, All of a sudden integrity has a new meaning then doesn’t it?

Also please show me where I mentioned that the boos are only for the players? I said that we can boo all we want. Unless Wenger fails to bring in his profit next year he will be here next season simples. Nothing will change. Look at the last time 4th place was under threat – we signed Arshavin who was the catalyst for us getting the holy grail.

Unless there is a threat to the piggy bank (failure to qualify for CL or loss of TV revenue from Sky) then NOTHING WILL CHANGE.

Stan is happy sipping Jack Daniels on his new ranch while mugs boo at HIS football club at his Stadium.

Incredible post match comments from the Great One. Let’s see, we lost on Saturday because the team was “jaded” and we lost tonight because “we dropped a bit in the second half because players were not up to this level of competition”.
Of the 11 starters, 10 are in the first team squad. Of the 10, only Squid and Chamakh are not first team regulars. Subs were AA and Angha played just 10 mins. So who exactly is not at that up to this level. On Saturday we will lose to West Brom because “too many players are jaded from playing midweek in the CL.”

Does he think that supporters are so stupid that he can say any stupid thing and get away with it? His stupid smirky picture on the club website with his post match comments only serves to underline his disdain.

“Changing manager for a more ambitious and with a distance with current player is clearly needed”.

So the board fires Wenger and replaces him with some one who will stand up for himself and question them? (As that’s the only way to change things at the moment no?) Looks great on paper. Why would Stan want to shoot his gold egg laying goose?

He’s has a purely business relationship with AFC nothing more and nothing less.

I’m not happy with the way things are, believe me. Wenger for what ever reason, personal or professional , seems to focus too much on the money side.

The way the club pays stupid wages and long term contracts to youngsters in the hope they become the next Cesc is a high risk game to play.

If they come good why not keep them?

Why not get rid of the whole set up at Colney and focus the cash on proven players at their peak?

Why not pay RvP, Cesc, Flamini etc. what they want and bulid a formidable team?

Why not buy a spine of English players to know what it meand to have the canon on the chest?

Etc, etc, etc…….

FFP may help a little in a few years but the glory days are long gone. Understand that and your halfway there.

GPharm: and that justifies the whole process of farming them.
Brilliant.
The only thing the board will listen to is empty stadium.
But with the amount of people still gullible to Wenger lies (and the board’s) this is not gonna happen tomorrow.
With a more ambitious manager we wouldn’t be here.
And Wenger will eventually fail on his own out of top 4 for under ressourcing.
Arsene complaining now about Diaby and Rosicky fitness as a reason for not being able to rotate and being jaded while he had all summer to strengthen? 2 of the 3 most injury prone players you’ve ever seen at Arsenal? And he sub Rosicky to be able to play him Sunday? Where’s the rotation? 45min and that’s it. No change in plan in case it works? Not even 60? Didn’t he realise that’s what fcked up the whole balance, that he had planned to take him off, but had no one to put instead of him on the bench? How come? Oh yeah, I forgot,
You need reliable players to rotate.
Not sitting ducks.
Until it’s proven, the board has nothing to do with the lack of trophies, while all reasons are at Wenger’s door. I want both out ultimately but you got to start somewhere, smaller and easier steps first. That’s how you get things done., unless you get a better manager first, who can get trophies, you can’t put Kroenke or another shareholder in a situation where he couldn’t refuse an offer from Usmanov in case of big drop or growth in sharevalue.
Simple as.
Because as it stands, even Usmanov has more interest and so does Kroenke, to be waiting for Wenger to fuck up and not move a finger.
They won’t kill the Lead goose and Usmanov will not pay over the odds for what he can just wait.
It’s not gold but they’re happy with lead aside of Usmanov though.
Don’t you think that it’s Wenger’s job to renew players contract, and pick good ones? and that there’s a pile of wasted money and unused money, and a lot of ex-arsenal players playing for the other top 4 clubs?

Don’t you think fans also have their limits? And that it’s getting very embarrassing for a club of our stature to lose against the likes of Swansea?
But do you think Kroenke cares?
No.
If marches actually go against Arsene, then you might actually have an effect and force the board to move him out, but this will only happen if we don’t qualify for CL, and if there is unity amongst gunners against mediocrity reign. if one domino has to fall to make the rest of the fake castle fall, then it is Wenger.

GPharm: I have no trouble telling my manager their tool is shit. Neither to tell it to the rest of the world if anyone asked. That’s a question of temperament. I think that they pay me to tell them how things are so that they can get fixed. I dont like to glue paper over cracks.
But because I signed a contract, I’ll do the job despite the tool, and make it nicely for their client to be happy. This time.
If once I’m finished on this project, and they want me to take care of things on another one, I’ll do it my way from the start, or I’ll be gone for another company.

So to come back to football, still won’t prevent me saying I want a better squad.
But couldn’t for the love of my own life give new contracts to Denilson, djourou, diaby, if I was Arsenal’s manager..

If it was forced by the board, I’d stay til end of my contract, but refuse to sign a new one unless I’m given last word on players contracts, and id be looking for exits, and ultimately find another job elsewhere. I would certainly not sign extensions after extensions if I was forced to hire people I don’t want to work with or if I couldn’t hire who I need to make the company proud and successful.

And as a professional, if i was in the football industry, I wouldn’t dare calling myself a football manager if I had been dragging Diaby or Rosicky for so long.
Signing these extensions, Wenger has stated clearly he is accomplice of whatever is happening at the back, and he’s not willing to get better players. He’s happy the way he works out top 4 and that’s all that matters to him.
He’s a caretaker, who’s lost totally the ambition for winning.
That’s a loser mentality.
And the exact reason why he can’t take us further.

End of.

Obviously, it’s only what I think.
But if you want to keep arguin it’s the board we need to fight now, feel free to keep on barking at the wrong tree. I ain’t spending more time on this. And Id like to sleep.

GPharm: if getting the manager out for a more ambitious one, which is something even Kroenke reminded is in our power, is a lost cause, then what is getting the board out if not the holy grail of lost causes?
.
The real problem is Wenger I have no doubt about it, and we have way more chances to get him out than the board hence why I don’t see the purpose going after the board at this stage, it’s a waste of energy and media attention that should be directed towards the most likely reason and most realistic event.

The BOD is comprised of a bunch of “elder statesmen” who have no share holdings of any significance anymore and no influence whatsoever, Gazidis, and Kroenke. Who do you think is in charge?
PHW is wheeled out periodically to make goofy statements to the media to take the negative spotlight off of Wenger. Gazidis is an eloquent mouthpiece with no real CEO power. Case in point is his conspicuous absence during this period of crisis where Wenger is under fan and media assault.
Kroenke may not know much about football but he IS a smart businessman and knows that his investment will decline in value if the current negative fan sentiment continues or worsens. Don’t think for a minute that Emirates will give 150M without covenants that ensure that the Arsenal brand value is maintained. As long as Wenger can maintain brand value and overachieve, he will have Kroenke’s support but if the fans and media turn on Wenger, he will be gone. In Kroenke’s world of American sports, coaches get sacked constantly when they don’t achieve.
So if you want change, keep the pressure on Wenger.

You guys think we can get decent results against Wigan, Newcastle or West Ham? I don’t think so. Not with the current form we’re in right now. Pathetic displays coming from all over the squad. Even Arteta is playing badly. If he had stayed at Everton, I think he should be a much better and happier now. Wilshere to leave in January and Wenger will come out and tell us to still believe in the team.

“As it was, Arsenal can go into next week’s League Cup tie at Bradford in relatively good heart. The team worked hard and for spells, even Squillaci and Chamakh dropped hints that they might be able to pull off a performance. In fairness to them both, not having much of a look-in for the first team is not conducive to playing well at the first opportunity and overall, they weren’t bad,”

Just prey we lose to wb and get knocked out the carling cup by Bradford. Wenger looks like a homeless person and yet he’s on 7.5 m a year. Rumours r wenger is entitled to a 25 m pay off. You read it hear first.